In the United States, when a person is arrested, detained, or otherwise committed to a correctional facility, that person is typically stripped of his or her personal possessions (e.g., cash, watches, jewelry, clothes, personal electronics, etc.) during an intake process commonly referred to as “booking.” Cash is deposited into a trust account for the individual while credit cards and other valuables are stored as personal property and returned to the individual upon his or her release from the facility. Family members or friends may be allowed to deposit additional money into the inmate's trust account during his or her incarceration.
While residing within the correctional facility, the inmate may often desire or need to initiate transactions that require monetary payment. For example, commissary purchases, medical payments, telephone calls, and other goods and services may be available to inmates whose trust accounts have sufficient funds to complete transactions. Moreover, as the inventors hereof have recognized, in prison systems that implement work-release programs and allow certain inmates to periodically leave confinement to work outside of the prison, inmates may also have a desire or need to initiate other transactions outside of the correctional facility.
Work-release inmates receive compensation from their employers. In some cases, employers mail checks to the prison administration, which will then cash the checks at a local bank (e.g., once a week) and disburse the money to respective inmates. As the inventors hereof have also recognized, however, attempting to distribute cash to inmates can cause a number of problems. Typically, a significant part of the cash can be lost, stolen, or distributed to the wrong inmate. Once the inmate receives cash, there is no mechanism in place to control, restrict, or monitor how the inmate spends his or her money (e.g., illegal or prescription drugs, etc.), especially with respect to transactions conducted outside of the correctional facility. To address these and other issues, the inventors hereof have developed various systems and methods for managing financial accounts associated with residents of controlled-environment facilities.